A complicated case

"The art of controlling spirits was precisely one of the cultivation records that he created in order to not only help himself but to also support those like him who were struggling to follow their heart." Elder Tai Ho's eyes sharply stared at Hua Tianshu as he asked, "The art of controlling spirits doesn't go against the Dao of the heaven so why are you suddenly interested in it?"

Hua Tianshu gave a thin smile as he heard this question and spoke, "We are reinvestigating the Yan Sect case and it seems that the case was much more complicated than what we had originally thought. You must have heard about Bai LiuXian's name, have you not? Jie Fu Lian was accused of murdering that boy."

"I don't live under a rock but I do live on top of a mountain. If the wind up here started talking, I might have been aware of such rumors but since there hasn't been such a miracle, I'm afraid I'm clueless."

Jie Fu Lian almost choked on empty air as he heard such a reply.

"Bai LiuXian was one of the reasons why Jie Fu Lian was killed."

Suddenly, Elder Tai Ho's expression looked a bit more serious with a hint of fury in it.

"He was killed using the art of controlling spirits but it wasn't the art of controlling spirits that Jie Fu Lian practiced."

"What do you mean?"

Hua Tianshu looked to be completely calm as he spoke, "Jie Fu Lian could summon the spirits of both animate and inanimate objects but there were limits to what he could summon. Spirits of Humans and Demons were precisely one of the exceptions that couldn't be summoned by him. However, the one who killed Bai LiuXian had used the art of controlling spirits to summon a demon's claw. It wasn't even the spirit of a demon, it was a physical demon's claw."

Elder Tai Ho's eyebrows drew together as he heard this and with every passing second, his expression looked to be turning graver.

"Are you sure about that?"

Hua Tianshu and Jie Fu Lian nodded their head in unison as they both confirmed it together.

"The art of controlling spirits isn't a perfect record," With a frown, Elder Tai Ho informed, "It is up to the person who practices it. Different people can have different interpretations of the same record. However, what you have said is truly weird. No matter how one would interpret it, they should still only be able to summon a spirit and not a physical entity. In the first place itself, to cultivate the art of controlling spirits, one would need to be a half-demon and have a blood relation with Xue Lan or the demon that he loved. This base condition is something that most people are unaware of."

With a short pause, he added, "As far as I know, Jie Fu Lian is the only one who inherited the art of controlling spirits so he should be the only one with such a blood relation."

Jie Fu Lian and Hua Tianshu shared a look before they turned to Elder Tai Ho and asked a question in unison.

"Can the art of controlling spirits be forcefully obtained through other methods?"

"If it was possible then many would have already done it," Elder Tai Ho clicked his tongue as he replied.

Jie Fu Lian sighed.

"I'm not sure if this would work but... In order to inherit the art of controlling spirits, the blood connection is the prerequisite and..." Elder Tai Ho gulped as he took a pause before adding, "As long as the blood is inside one's body, they might be able to inherit the art of controlling spirits."

"Huh?" Jie Fu Lian frowned as he looked at the man with utter confusion.

"Drinking blood," Elder Tai Ho revealed as he looked straight at Jie Fu Lian, "If one was able to collect the blood of the inheritor and consumed it, the blood would be inside them, and hence, the art of controlling spirits would also be inherited by them."

Jie Fu Lian's eyes slowly widened as he realized the meaning behind these words and he couldn't help but immediately feel a shiver run down his spine.

Since he was the only one who could inherit the art of controlling spirits, as long as someone drank his blood, that person would also be able to inherit the same cultivation record. But, of course, if someone had drunk his blood, he would naturally be the first to know, and as far as he was concerned, nobody had ever stolen any of his blood.

"However, the art of controlling spirits had four parts. While the first two were inherited, the last two were recorded down. Even if the person managed to drink the blood and inherited the first part he would still receive an incomplete cultivation record and would need to drink more blood in order to inherit the next part. If the first two parts weren't inherited, the last two parts would be utterly useless to one."

"Even if he had drank Jie Fu Lian's blood and inherited the first two parts, it would still be impossible for him to perfect the art of controlling spirits. After all, the last two parts of the record were with Jie Fu Lian and he had never given them to anyone," Jie Fu Lian spoke up with a serious expression on his face.

As soon as he had said it, he realized something.

"The last two parts went missing right after Jie Fu Lian's death," Hua Tianshu informed with a sigh.

"From what I can tell, that person might not have practiced the last two parts," Elder Tai Ho also spoke up as he informed, "If had practiced all four parts, he wouldn't have summoned a mere claw, he would have summoned a full demon."

Jie Fu Lian gulped as he heard this and he finally started understanding this case a bit more.

The reason why the murderer had targeted both Jie Fu Lian and Bai LiuXian wasn't merely because of his personal hatred or grudges, it was because getting rid of Jie Fu Lian was the only way of collecting and practicing the last two parts of the cultivation record in secret without arising the suspicion of others.

If stealing the last two records was the goal then the culprit most probably had another reason for targeting Bai LiuXian.

"But Elder Tai Ho, previously, you said practicing the art of controlling spirits can only help one summon spirits and not physical entities. If that's right then did he really practice the art of controlling spirits?" It was Duan Luoyang who had suddenly asked out of pure curiosity and confusion.

Elder Tai Ho looked at the man and gave a thin smile as he spoke, "I was also wondering the same."

"..."

"The art of controlling spirits alone should not have been able to help him summon a physical entity. However, there are other ways. Perhaps he practiced the art of controlling spirits by merging it with another cultivation record. Or maybe what he practiced wasn't the genuine art of controlling spirits but a cheaper copy of it that had been purposefully modified by someone."

"That makes sense..." Jie Fu Lian muttered to himself with a nod, "The murderer had no way of obtaining the first two parts of the cultivation record but there is a high chance that he might have stolen the last two parts. However, when he killed Bai LiuXian, he hadn't yet managed to get his hands on the last two parts and the art of controlling spirits that he practiced was too terrible to be called the art of controlling spirits."

Hua Tianshu and Elder Tai Ho nodded their heads as they heard this and seemed to be agreeing with Jie Fu Lian.

"For the first two parts, the murderer might have practiced from a cheaper copy of the art of controlling spirits. He might not have even known that the art of controlling spirits was an inherited cultivation record. When he found out that there were two more parts, he decided to target Jie Fu Lian who was the only one known to practice the art of controlling spirits."

Elder Tai Ho, "That sounds very possible. If it was a cheaper copy made by a demon then what he practiced would seem to be the art of controlling spirits, but at the same time, it would be something totally different."

"And that was exactly what we saw," Jie Fu Lian gulped as he spoke.

At first, Jie Fu Lian thought this murderer was quite talented and smart for having gotten away, but now, he considered the murderer an idiot for practicing a cultivation record without even checking its authenticity.